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As IPv6 looms, the Federal Government is set to miss its own support deadline

The Obama Administration set a benchmark that by September 30, 2012, government websites had to support IPv6, the new Internet protocol replacing IPv4, to allow for a great number more addresses.

However, it would appear that the government is going to fall far short of that goal. According to the data collected at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), less than half of government websites have either made progress, or have completed their enabling of IPv6.

According to the NIST, over 300 sites are now accessible over IPv6. According to research over at InternetSociety, several hundred more are expected to ‘go live’ before the deadline. However, a quick perusal of just how far much of the government has to go before full compliance is reached is somewhat stunning.

Returning to the report at InternetSociety, why the various agencies have not managed to reach full IPv6 compliance is actually somewhat simple: before the two-year deadline was announced, few had any plans relating to IPv6 compliance, extant contracts were perhaps binding, and no new funding was provided.

Given the normal level of dysfunction that we expect among our government, that they have made this much progress is almost surprising, given those hurdles.

Green means completed, yellow in progress, and red no progress at all. It’s not hard to spot the biggest offenders. Unsurprisingly, the more total domains an agency controls, the more, on average, work they have yet to do.

Come the first of next month, we’ll have a fresh tally. I’m willing to lay 3 to 1 that the total percentage of completed IPv6 enabled domains remains under 25% when the deadline slips past.